


Glue

by Bluewolf458



Category: The Sentinel
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-21
Updated: 2013-10-21
Packaged: 2017-12-30 01:42:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 692
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1012526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bluewolf458/pseuds/Bluewolf458
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The PD computers have picked up a virus...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Glue

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Sentinel Thursday

There was a strangely grim silence in the bullpen when Blair bounced in just after mid-day, happy to be nearly half an hour early for once. Everyone was intent on his - or her - computer.

He looked around, puzzled, then headed over to Jim's desk. Jim glanced up. "Hi, Chief," he muttered then returned his attention to his monitor.

"What's wrong?" Blair asked softly.

Jim glanced up again. "We'll make a detective out of you yet," he said.

"Jim, it doesn't take a Sherlock Holmes to recognize that something has you all looking fit to spit nails."

"Someone - the Captains are all trying to find out who - did something yesterday that picked up a virus. Everything entered into any of the computers yesterday - when we hit 'save' nothing happened but of course we thought it was saved; and as soon as we closed the file it was deleted, but we didn't know that until someone went to pull up a half-finished report this morning and it wasn't there."

"I thought everything was automatically backed up?" Blair said.

"Yes, but the backup failed too."

"So everyone is having to redo everything they did yesterday." 

"At least it was just the one day's work," Jim said.

"Frustrating, though," Blair agreed. "I take it the virus has been successfully removed?"

Jim looked at him, a touch of alarm in his eyes. "The computer tech said it was... "

Blair dug into a side pocket of his backpack, and produced a memory stick. "When you finish... copy the document and paste it into this. That way, if there still _is_ a problem, you'll at least have a copy."

"Shouldn't we give everyone else the chance to do that too?"

"The stick doesn't have a massive memory," Blair said, "and I have some stuff saved on it that I can't really afford to lose... But we could give Rhonda the chance."

Leaving the stick with Jim, Blair went over to Rhonda's desk. "Jim tells me there's been a problem," he said softly.

"Yes. I just wish I was sure the virus has been killed. They're insidious things."

"I've got a memory stick - just 256 meg, though, and only about half of that free - but I've suggested that Jim pastes his input from today into it, and there should be enough space left for yours, too. Just for insurance."

"Blair... I love you! I'd marry you if I didn't already have a husband!"

Blair chuckled. "I'll leave the stick with you. If you have to delete any of my stuff to get all of yours on... well, it's all on my laptop, this is just backup... though there's not really any 'just' about backup. Some of it is important and I can't afford to lose it. If you do have to delete anything, make it the folder called 'sub mag arts'."

"Okay, but I hope I won't have to delete anything."

"I wish I could offer space on it to the others, but... "

"I've already suggested to them that they print it before they close a file. That's what I was going to do, but having a copy is so much better. I just hope someone finds out who downloaded the virus. Whoever it was deserves to be fired - it was probably someone using part of their lunch hour to check something on the Internet, and we're not supposed to use the PD computers for personal stuff," Rhonda said.

"Or maybe it wasn't personal stuff. Maybe it was someone checking for info on something legitimate, work-related, and just sheer bad luck that whatever that was was infected."

"I'd like to think you're right," Rhonda agreed. 

"Anyway, I'll give you the stick as soon as Jim's finished with it."

"Thanks, Blair."

Rhonda watched as Blair went back to Jim's desk. Sometimes she wondered how Major Crime had managed before Blair arrived; and she, for one, was happy that Simon had managed to keep Blair's ride-along status going. She'd often heard it said that without the secretary a place would fall apart; but in her opinion, it was Blair, not she, who was the glue that kept Major Crime from falling apart.


End file.
